?£:'ri6SBR i )>^.?^>,i .3 ^t»i fA/.}^,' ' *rr , > ' '' 



,< . ♦''^; Ji 



^* r< 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



(SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.) 

Ch<tp. o \ 1 v-' 
Shelf ''r\ 3^ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY AND THE WOOL 
MANUFACTURE. 



AN ADDRESS 

Delivered before the National AoRicuLXLaiAL Congress, at 
New Haven, Conn., August 3^ 1878, 




JOHN L. HAYES, LL.D., 

SECRETARY OF TUK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOOL MANUFACTURERS. 



Published under the Direction of the Massachusetts Society for 
THE Promotion of Agriculture. 



BOSTON: 
11 PEMBERTON SQUARE. 

1878. 



~r 



THE 



RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES 



SHKEP HUSBANDRY AND THE WOOL 
MANUFACTURE. 



AN ADDRESS 

Dp-ttveked before the National Agricultural Coxgress, at 
New Havex, Conx., August 29, 1878, 

\ BIT 
JOHN L. HAYES, LL.D., 

SECRETARY OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOOL MANUFACTURERS. 



Published under the Direction of the Massachusetts Society for 
THE Promotion of AgriIculture. 






,f, ■ -.">■■-■ 



-_^ BOSTON: ,.^^^.V,.^ 
It PEMBERTON SQUARE. '^' 

1878. 



^ 



<l 



THE 



RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES 

FOR 

SHEEP HUSBANDRY AND THE WOOL 
MANUFACTURE. 



In the middle of tlie last century there lived in England a 
gentle scholar, by name John Dyer, whose discursive mind had 
led him to forsake the profession in which he was initiated, and 
in which his fiither was distinguished, — the law, — for art 
and literature. Entering the Established Church, according to 
the ideas of his time and country the most suitable field for 
these pursuits, his productions — notable among which was a 
poem on Grongar Hill, a word picture of English scenery — 
gained him patrons. To his first very modest living were 
added others, until, in the evening of his life, he found the com- 
petence and repose which enabled him to write, and to publish 
in 1757, his chief work, the great English pastoral poem, the 
" Fleece ; " its topics being the " care of sheep, the labors of the 
loom, and the arts of trade." Notwithstanding the affectations 
of style peculiar to the period, and the traditional treatment of 
a pastoral subject, this work — as an exhaustive treatise on the 
sheep husbandry of the period, as a representation of the then 
existing textile arts, as a pictorial map of the course of British 

1 



trade, and as a repository of all the classic traditions and asso- 
ciations connected with sheep husbandry and wool manipula- 
tion — is one of the most valuable legacies left us from the 
" silver age " of British literature. 

The poem, however, never became popular, in spite of the 
tribute to the author by his contemporary and brother-poet, 
Akenside, who declared that he would regulate his opinion of 
the reigning taste by the fate of Dyer's " Fleece ; " for, if that 
were ill received, he would not think it any longer reasonable 
to expect fame from excellence. 

Dr. Samuel Johnson, to whose coarse mind all common 
things were ignoble, says of this poem, "It is universally 
neglected, and I can say little that is likely to call it to atten- 
tion. The wool-comber and the poet appear to me to be such 
discordant natures, that to attempt to bring them together is to 
couple the serpent with the fowl. When Dyer, whose mind 
was not unpoetical, has done his utmost by interesting the 
reader in our native commodity, by interspersing rural imageiy, 
and, incidentally, by clothing small images in great words, and 
by all the arts of delusion, the meanness naturally adhering 
and the irreverence habitually annexed to trade and manufac- 
tures sink him under insuperable oppression." We might wonder 
at this illiberality on the part of so great a scholar, if we did 
not consider that, within the memoiy of most of us, similar 
sentiments as to trade in all products but one, and as to manu- 
factures in general, prevailed among the most cultivated classes 
in many of the proudest States of our own country. 

Over a century has passed since Dyer (to use Johnson's 
clumsy witticism) was buried in his woollens ; but how much 
wiser now seems the poet than his illustrious critic ! The poet 
saw in the fleece and the loom the great source of England's 
commercial supremacy. He doubtless remembered the words 
of the quaint old " Golden Fleece," published just a hundred 
years before his time: "Wool is the flower and strength, the 
blood and the revenue, of England." With prophetic vision, he 
pictures the towns which were to spring up through the trade 
in fleece and web. As was the scene which Virgil describes, of 



"Hurrying Carthage, where the Trojan chief 
First viewed her growing turrets . . . 

. . . the echoing-hills repeat 
The stroke of axe and hammer ; scaffohls rise, 
And growing edifices ; heaps of stone 
Beneath the chisel beauteous shapes assume 
Of frieze and cokimn." 

How far do Bradford, Leeds, Huddersfield, Halifax, — all 
built up by the wool manufacture, and mostly since the poet's 
day, — surpass his predictions ? 

Looking beyond the seas, he sings, 

"A day will come, 
When through new channels sailing we shall clothe 
The California coast." 

And he continues, — 

"That portion, too, of land, a tract immense, 
Beneath the Antarctic spread, shall then be known, 
And new plantations on its coast arise. 
Then rigid winter's ice no more shall wound 
The only naked animal ; but man 
With the soft fleece shall everywhere be clothed." 

California, with its six million sheep and its magnificent 
mills, and Australia with its flocks of over sixty million, 
almost literally contributing clothing from their soft merino 
fleeces to the whole world, are more than fulfilments of these 
prophecies ; for what is predicted of Englishmen may be claimed 
for all their descendants. The Australian wool trade, centring 
in London, employs more tonnage than all the British trade in 
wool textiles did a hundred years ago. Thus is verified the 
poet's description of London, where trade, "enthroned amid a 
thousand golden spires, gives audience to the world;" and his 
lines, — 

" What bales ! what wealth! what industry ! what fleets! 
Lo, from the simple fleece how much proceeds! " 

Dyer lived in the time when the work of spinning and weav- 
ing, conducted only in scattered households, began to be 
concentrated in large buildings employing many workmen. 



6 

The change of system was very salutary in its effect upon the 
moral character of the work-people, and was hailed with delight 
by the benevolent. The first experiment of concentrating tex- 
tile labor was made in the workhouses of Bristol and Birming- 
ham. The poet carries his reader to one of these houses, in 
which he 

"Views with wonder and with silent joy 
The sprightly scene, where many a busy hand, 
Where spoles, cords, wheels, and looms with motion quick 
And ever-murmuring sound, th' unwonted sense wrap in surprise." 

This was the dawn of the factory system, which created the 
existing textile manufacture ; covering England with its palatial 
mills, and employing, in cotton alone, 35,000,000 spindles, 
400,000 looms, and 650,000 workmen. 

The poet lived also in the time when the ancient distaff was 
still used for spinning in Norwich and Suffolk, and when the 
double-spooled wheel was a novelty. But the marvel of his 
time was Paul's invention of roller spinning ; in which rollers or 
cylinders, through which the wool or cotton is drawn, are the 
mechanical substitutes for the thumb and finger of the hand- 
spinner, — an invention often, with great injustice to Paul, 
attributed to Arkwright. Dyer gives the first contemporary 
description of this invention, his book having been published 
three years before Arkwright took out his first patent. 

" But patient art, 
That on experience works from hour to hour. 
Has a spiral engine formed, 
Which on a hundred spoles, an hundred threads 
With one huge wheel by lapse of water twines. 
Few hands requiring; easy-handed work. 
That copiously supplies the greedy loom. 

... it draws and spins a thread 
Without the tedious toil of needless hands." 

The carded wool, he says, — 

" Is smoothly wrapped around those cylinders 
Which, gently turning, yield it to yon cirque 
Of upright spindles, which, with rapid wheel. 
Spin out in long extent an even twine." 



The introduction of this simple machine, it would seem, was 
looked upon with apprehension by the spinning women of the 
time (the absurd notion, recently revived, that machinery 
destroys the laborer's occupation, prevailed a century ago} ; for 
the poet continues, — 

" Nor hence, ye nymphs, let anger cloud your brows ; 
Blithe o'er your toils with wonted song proceed ; 
Fear not surcharge : your hands will ever find 
Ample employment." 

Could he have dreamed that an improvement which seemed 
so vast, because it increased the spinner's power a hundred-fold, 
would be developed, as it is now, so that one mill in a single 
day, with the expenditure of force derived from seven tons of coal, 
can do the work of seventy thousand spinners of former times. 

I have referred to this poem, partly that I might anticipate 
the objection which may be made to the meanness of my sub- 
ject ; partly to suggest that my seeming exaggerations may in 
time be disproved, as in the case of the enthusiastic poet ; and 
partly to invite the attention of my sheep -growing friends to a 
work so obsolete that no American edition of it has ever been 
published, but in which they will find a source of that delight 
which comes from weaving into the web of the homeliest pursuit 
the golden threads of poetic thought and classic associations. 
Do not believe, with the great moralist, that the poet and the 
wool-grower or wool-worker are of " discordant natures." No 
grower ever bred a flock of perfect fibre and form, no workman 
ever designed and executed an artistic fabric, who was not 
impelled by that enthusiasm, that passion for the ideal, which is 
the soul of poetry. The wool-comber and poet of discordant 
natures ! Look at Ileilman of Mulhouse, the inventor of the 
mechanical wool and cotton comber, — an invention which has 
revolutionized the wool-growing of the world as well as the 
wool manufacture of the world. Heilman was a contemplative 
dreamer, — what some would call a "fmcy man." Idly watch- 
ing his daughters as they combed their luxuriant hair, the idea 
of his wool-comber fiashed into his mind from the methods 
which they used. And thus it may be said that an invention 



8 

which ranks among the very first in the century (for all the 

manufacture of women's worsted dress-stuffs is due to it) was 

made by one of those dreamers whom the elegant Buckminster 

describes, after Milton, as tliose who 

" Sport with Amarylis in the shade, 
Or with the tangles of Nesera's hair." 

I have still another reason for my reference to the English 
pastoral. I owe to it directly the line of thought which I shall 
endeavor to follow in this discourse. Its dominant sentiment is 
exultation in the possession by Britain of a commodity which 
has enriclied every nation possessing it. Inspired by this idea, 
I obey the patriotic instinct due to my British descent, and select 
for my topic the " Resources of the United States for Sheep 
Husbandry and the Wool Manufacture." 

I do not for a moment doubt the appropriateness of this theme 
for a national congress of farmers. There is no department of 
agriculture so cosmopolitan and unsectional as wool production 
and its incidents. Unlike the production of any other textile, 
or even of the cereals, it can be pursued with advantage in one 
or other of its forms in every State, and almost every county, 
in our national territory. England and New Jersey show its 
fitness for the oldest-settled countries and the contiguity of cities ; 
Australia, California, and Colorado, that it is the pioneer in- 
dustry for new States. Russia, Shetland, and the sea-girt 
islands of Maine show its resistance to the rigors of cold. The 
most southerly country in the Union, Nueces and Starr Counties 
in Texas, with their 700,000 sheep, show that it endures the 
heat of the semi-tropics, although the genial infiuences of moi'e 
temperate latitudes may be specially manifest in the fleeces of 
Ohio and the Panhandle of Virginia. There is no soil so ai'id 
that it will not respond to the marvellous fertilizer which the 
sheep affords in its manure, and none so permanently rich that 
in time it may not need this best of all restoratives. Though 
on a large scale, and as an exclusive pursuit, fitted better for 
cheap lands and purely pastoral regions, it may be a most 
profitable adjunct to our most important husbandry, — the 
wheat culture ; while there is no cotton plantation, dairy farm, 



9 

or tobacco farm (as I shall hereafter show) where it may not be 
a valuable subsidiary, or usefully fill up some gap. Incidental to 
wool-growing is the production of mutton ; through which, above 
all other means, the cost of animal food, the heaviest item of 
necessary expense in every household, is kept within reason- 
able limits. Incidental, again, to wool production is its manu- 
facture ; the woollen-mill invariably appearing where flocks are 
abundant and power at command. Thus the farmer has a 
market for his fleeces at his own door. Exchanging wool for 
cloth, without intermediary expenses, he finds the second great 
item of household expenditures — that of clothing — lessened by 
his sheep. This is not all : the woollen-mill is the first harbin- 
ger of a developed industry in an agricultural country. Other 
manufiictures follow ; a market is opened for crops which will 
not bear transportation. With a developed husbandry, lands in- 
crease in value ; and, although the mills may pay no dividends, 
the prudent famner is sure to thrive. This is no fancy sketch. 
When a boy, I saw the foundation laid of the first woollen mill 
on the Salmon Falls River, within a mile of my father's Hock of 
three hundred merino sheep. This river now moves one hundred 
and thirty-two thousand cotton spindles and fourteen sets of 
woollen machinery. The uiills, it is said, have not averaged 
three per cent annual dividends since their first establishment. 
But the valley in which they lie has become a paradise of pros- 
perous farmers. 

To fully comprehend the blessings we enjoy in our present opu- 
lence in sheep and wool, we must consider our resources at the 
commencement of the centennial epoch. It is diflficult to con- 
ceive the poverty in woollens of the masses of the American 
people a hundred years ago. The soldiers of our Revolution 
were chiefly clothed in linen. Wool in Philadelphia, at the com- 
mencement of the War of the Revolution, cost seven shillings a 
pound. Although New England was best supplied with wool, 
Mr. Otis said, during the war, that there was not enouah wool 
to furnish each inhabitant with a pair of stockings. The As- 
sembly of Pennsylvania, by a resolution, recommended the people 
to abstain from eating, and the butchers from killing, sheep. 



10 

And the rich people of Philadelphia (the most opulent city in 
America) were urged to adopt the fashion of wearing leather 
doublets. Even the officers of our army were so ragged that, 
when guests at Baron Steuben's table, they were called by him, 
in friendly banter, his merry sans-culottes . In our last war, we 
clothed, mainly from our own flocks, 2,655,576 soldiers (the 
precise number) as no army was ever clothed before ; and, at 
the close of the war, had a surplus in overcoats alone nearly 
sufficient to furnish an overcoat to one-third of all the voters in 
the United States. 

It is related that General Lafayette, during the War of the 
Revolution, was invited by the ladies of Baltimore to a ball. He 
attended ; but, instead of dancing, made this address to his fair 
hosts : ''You are very handsome, you dance very prettily, your 
ball is very fine ; but my soldiers have no shirts." Of course 
the appeal of the gallant young Frenchman was effectual in pro- 
curing a liberal supply. During our late war, of shirts in their 
orthodox meaning, — under-garments of cotton or linen, — it 
might be said, in Falstaff 's words : " There's but a shirt and a 
half in all the company." But the abundance of wool caused the 
substitution of wool for cotton underclothing, and procured the 
supply by the government of woollen shirts and drawers, blouses 
and stockings, to which the excellent hygienic condition of our 
armies has been largely attributed. Mr. Hazard, a veteran 
wool manufacturer of Rhode Island, informs me, that he re- 
members that before and up to 1800, when he commenced the 
first manufacture of linsey-woolseys, the half-grown girls in the 
country districts of the Providence plantations were commonly 
nearly as naked as savages, and invariably hid themselves at the 
approach of a traveller. Now a single mill, in New England, 
making exclusively women's dress-stufi^s, consumes for this pur- 
pose, every week, the fleeces often thousand sheep. 

The number of sheep in the United States on the first day of 
January, 1878, as estimated by the eminent statistician of the 
Department of Agriculture, Mr. J. R. Dodge (than whom there 
is no higher authority ) , was* : — 

* The tables were illustrated in the lecture by large charts. 



11 

Maine 525,800 

New Hampshire 2;!9,900 

Vermont 461,400 

Massachusetts 60,300 

Rhode Island 24,500 

Connecticut 92,500 

New York 1,518,100 

New Jersey 128,300 

Pennsylvania 1,607,600 

Delaware 35,000 

Maryland 151,200 

Virginia 422 000 

North Carolina 490,000 

South Carolina 175,000 

Georgia 382,300 

Florida 56,500 

Alabama 270,000 

Mississippi 250,000 

Louisiana 125,000 

Texas 3,674.700 

Arkansas 285,000 

Tennessee 850,000 

West Virginia 549,900 

Kentucky 900,000 

Ohio 3,783,000 

Michigan 1,750,000 

Indiana 1,092,700 

Illinois 1,258,500 

Wisconsin 1,323,700 

Minnesota 300,000 

Iowa 560,000 

Missouri 1,271,000 

Kansas 156,600 

Nebraska 62,400 

California 6,561,000 

Oregon 1,074,300 

Nevada 72,000 

Colorado 600,000 

The Territories 2,600,000 

Total 35,740,500 

The prominent facts shown by this table are, the extension of 
sheep husbandry in the new Territories : Cahfornia, 6,561,000, 
ranking- first; Texas, 3,674,700, third. Oregon, Colorado, 
and the Territories have over four million. This increase in 
Texas and new States of the West is partially due to a transfer 
of sheep from the old to the new States. Ohio, which is 
credited with 3,783,000 sheep, had, in 1868, 7,622,495. 
In some of the New England States, sheep husbandry has greatly 
declined, largely through a change to dairy-farming for supply- 

2 



12 

ing milk to the cities, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode 
Island, together, having only 177,000. 

In comparing former periods, we find that Massachusetts, in 
1640, had 3,000 sheep; Virginia, 1649, the same; the New 
Netherlands, in 1643, had but sixteen sheep. 

The first attempt for an accurate estimate of sheep in the 
country in more recent times, within my knowledge, is a sta- 
tistical view of the number of sheep in the several towns and 
counties of New England and the other principal wool-growing 
States, in 1836, by Messrs. Benton and Berry. The number 
returned by them, is shown in the following table : — 

IMaine , 622,619 

New Hampshire 465,179 

Vermont 1,099,011 

Massaeluisetts 378, o22 

Rhode Island 81,619 

Conne<'ticut 255,169 

New York 4,--'99,.S79 

New Jersey 250.000 

Pennsylvania 1,714,640 

Delaware 150,000 

Maryland 275,000 

Virnima I,000,(i00 

Ohio 1,711,200 

Kentucky 600,000 

Total 12,897,638 

Vermont and New Hampshire had then nearly twice as many 
sheep as they now have ; Connecticut, two and a half times as 
many ; Rhode Island, a little more than three times as many ; 
and Massachusetts, six times as many. 

The progress in sheep husbandry is not shown merely by the 
increase in the number, but by the increase of wool production ; 
for careful culture, and the introduction of different races, have 
increased the quality of wool in a greater ratio than is shown 
by the increased number of sheep. Messrs. Benton and Barry 
estimate our wool-product in 1836 at 41,917,324 pounds. The 
census returns for 1860 place our wool pi-oduction in that year 
at 59,673,952 pounds. The estimate, I thitdc, is too small. In 
1866, according to the estimates of Mr. Lynch (a most re- 
liable authority), the clip of the old States had reached 



13 



120,000,000 pounds ; and that of the Pacific States and Terri- 
tories, 17,000,000 pounds, — a total of 137,000,000 pounds. 
The period from 1860 to 1866 was marked by the war and 
Morrill tariff, both influences highly stimulating to wool-pro- 
duction. In 1877, there was a production in the old States of 
117,000,000 pounds ; and in the Pacific States and Territories, 
of 208,000,000 pounds. Thus, with less than half the number 
of sheep in the old States, the wool-production in the whole 
country is five times as great as in 1836. 

As it is always interesting to compare our own resources with 
those of other nations, I have shown on tiiis chart the number 
of sheep in the world, as estimated by Messrs. H. Schwartze 
& Co., of London, competent authorities. 

ESTIMATE OP THE NUMBER OF SHEEP IN THE AVORLD. 





Year of 
Return. 


No. of Sheep. 


United Kinsjtloiii 


1876 
1870 

1873 
1865 
1871 

1873 

1871 

1866 

1873 

1866 

1872 

1874* 

1865 

1870 

1875 
Estimate 

,, 


32,252,579 


Russia 


48,132,000 


Sweden 


1,605,434 


Norway 


1,705,394 


Denmark 


1,842,481 




800,000 


Geriiiaiiy 


24,900,406 




20,103,395 


Switzerland 


447,001 


Holland 


901,515 


Belgiimi 


586,007 


France 


24,580,647 


Italy 


6,077,104 


Spain 


22,054,067 


Portugal 


2,706,777 




Turkey and Greece), about 




Total Europe (excluding 
Australasia 


190,000,000 
62,000,000 


Cape 


16,000,000 


River Plate 


60,000,000 


North America 


60,000,000 


Remainder of America 


6,000,000 




iia, &c., say 




Total 

Turkey, North Africa, Per 
India and China, say . . 

Grand total . 


384,000,000 
65.000,000 
35,000,000 

484,000,000 







* Recent statistics place them at 9,000,000. 



14 



THE CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 

The numbers of sheep grown in a country convey a very in- 
adequate idea of the nation's resources. The character of the 
animals is of the first consideration. The sheep of the United 
States consist, first, of what are called the native sheep, which 
are descendants of the unimproved coarse-woolled English sheep 
first introduced (apparently of the old Leicester race), before 
Bakewell's improvements. Their product of wool in the extreme 
Southern States, where the old race is most characteristic, is 
about two pounds to the animal. The mutton, though not fat, 
is considered excellent. Second, descendants from the improved 
English races, principally brought from Canada. Third, the 
Mexican sheep found in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and 
California ; a hardy, though a coarse and sparsely- woolled sheep, 
descended from the Chourro race in Spain, — that country not 
permitting the fine-woolled sheep to be exported, even to her 
colonies. Fourth, the merino sheep, and crosses of that breed 
with three other named races. 

The merinos constitute the principal and characteristic race 
in the United States. This is the most important fact in the 
enumeration of our resources for sheep husbandry and the wool 
manufacture. England has no merinos, except in her colonies ; 
Russia, with sixty-five million sheep, has but twelve million meri- 
nos ; France, but nine millions. Although the numbers in this 
country cannot be exactly given, the merinos and grades in the 
United States probably exceed twenty-five million. Merino 
wool is for clothing what wheat is for food : it is the chief mate- 
rial for cloth at the present day, entering into the coarsest as well 
as the finest. While the softest, it is the strongest, of all wool 
fibres, from the number of filaments which may be spun in a 
yarn of a given diameter. From its fulling and spinning quali- 
ties, or what is sometimes called its carrying power, it is the 
best adhesive for the cheaper fabrics, — coarser wool, cotton, or 
shoddy ; the mixture of merino wool increasing indefinitely the 
materials for cheap clothing. Abundant merino wool is the 
greatest boon the world has received from the animal kingdom 



15 

in the hist century. It is literally, in its extended culture, tlie 
product of the last centuiy. A hundred years ago, all the 
merinos in the world, confined exclusively to Spain, did not, it 
is believed, number a million. 1765 marks the epoch of the first 
exportation of the merinos to Saxony ; 1786, to France ; 1803, 
to Australia; 1802, the introduction of the first merino sheep, 
whose descendants are known to have survived, to this country. 
The fact should be specially commemorated here, that to a 
Connecticut citizen. General Humphreys, and to the introduction 
to his farm, contiguous to this very city, of twenty-one rams 
and seventy ewes of the merino race, may be directly traced 
the most celebrated breeds of the American merino, and those 
through which our flocks have been chiefly ameliorated ; pro- 
ducing individuals actually sold for $5,000 each, others for from 
$2,000 to $3,000, and one for which $10,000 was refused. 
The years 1809 and 1810 were the periods of the introduction 
of 3,850 merino sheep, by Consul Jarvis of Vermont, and about 
2,500 by others, but all from the prime flocks of Spain ; these 
flocks having been confiscated by the Spanish government, be- 
cause the grandees, to whom they had belonged, had joined 
the French. The sheep above mentioned formed the source of 
all the merino sheep in the country, with the exception of the 
very few sheep of the Saxon blood now remaining, whose parents 
were introduced from Germany in four years, commencing in 
1824, about 3,000 having been imported in that period. It is 
worthy of especial notice that our merinos were directly derived 
from the best flocks of Spain, before their decline ; and that the 
new characters, impressed upon the original Spanish race, are all 
of our own creation. 

I would like to dwell at length upon that greatest marvel in the 
history of our domestic animals, — the isolated existence in Spain, 
for centuries, of this race of the merino. That it was a creation 
of man, I cannot doubt ; but when and how will always remain 
a mystery. To those who wish to study this question, I would 
recommend the perusal of an admirable essay on the origin of 
the merino sheep, written by Mr. George William Bond, and 
published in the seventh volume of the "Bulletin of the National 



16 

Association of Wool Manufacturers." I cannot refrain from 
adverting to a single point brought out by JNIr. Bond's essay. 
The name "merino" is supposed by some writers to indicate that 
this race was imported from beyond the sea. Others declare it 
to mean " wandering/' being identical with transhumantes ; the 
sheep being moved from one section to another, according to 
the season. Doctor E. OldendorfF, in a learned communication, 
which will be published in our Bulletin, repudiates both these 
suppositions, and derives the name of tiie sheep from officers' 
known under the ancient Spanish law, as Merinos Majores 
and Merinos Minores, the duty of the former being to dis- 
tribute the pasture-lands to the transhumantes sheep ; and that 
the flocks were called merinos after the officers who had care 
of them.* 

The fibre of the merino sheep is not the only excellence of 
the animal. When properly bred, this race has a hardiness or 
(as the French call it) 7'usticiti/ surpassing all other high-bred 
races. Ihe yolk or soap (fat and potash being its chief con- 
stituents) which nature provides to assist the growth of the 
wool, abounding in this race more than any, causes the tips 
of the fleece to be cemented, and, with the assistance of the 
interior yolk, causes the fleeces to be impenetrable to the rain 
and snows. A lighter pastui-e suffices for their sustenance than 
would suj)port the mutton races. Unlike the mutton sheep, the 
merinos herd admirably well ; that is, keep while travelling 
or moving from pasture, in compact flocks, easily tended by the 
shepherd or his dog. They will thrive well in flocks of from 
1,000 to 1,500 head. The wool, in this race, being of more 
importance tiian the mutton, and, being more easily transported 
than any other agricultural commodity, distance from a market 
is but a little impediment to their culture. This race is there- 
fore fitted, above all others, for the remote pastoral lands, and 
for culture on a large scale. Another quality of the merino 
race is of peculiar value in certain districts. This is, the power 
which it possesses of imparting its qualities to inferior races, the 

* Mr. Livingston gives the same derivation in liis treatise on sheep, published 
in 1813. 



17 

male animals possessing what is called prepotency ^ — a character- 
istic of long-established races. The merino gives scope to the 
breeder's highest art; which is, in the words of Polixenes, in 
Shakespeare's charming pastoral, the "Winter's Tale," to 

" Marry 
A gentler scion to the wildest stock, 
And make conceive a bark of baser kind 
By bud of nobler race." 

A continuous use of merino bucks builds up, upon a stock of 
inferior ewes, a flock of fine and densely-woollcd animals, with 
marvellous rapidity. A INIexican ewe shearing one pound of 
coarse wool, if bred to a pure merino buck, will produce a lamb 
which, when one year old, will shear at least three pounds of 
much finer wool ; and the produce of this lamb, if a ewe and 
bred to the merino, will go up to four and a half or five pounds 
of still finer wool. 

The South has enough hardy ewes, obtainable at a cheap 
price, uj)on whom this transformation may be made, to stock her 
country. Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Mexico possess, 
or can easily obtain from jMexico, the Mexican sheep of the 
Chourro race, — a race distinguished for its robust temperament, 
the facility with which it is nourished, and its resistance to 
hunger and tempestuous seasons. It is from these qualities of 
the merino, and from our having in the old States an ample sup- 
ply of regenerators specially ada[)ted to the demands of the new 
States, that sheep husbandry has advanced in California, the 
trans-Missouri regions, and Texas, with a rapidity equalled only 
in Australia and the Argentine Republic. In those States it is 
no longer, as thirty years ago, an adjunct to other farming. It 
has become an exclusive pursuit. Single proprietors in Cali- 
fornia have as many as 100,000 sheep. One proprietor could, 
in 1875, show a flock of 14,192 pure merino ewes descended 
from 400 pure merino ewes purchased in 18(32, besides the males 
which had been reared or slaughtered. There are single propri- 
etors in Texas having 30,000 head. One Texas gentleman in- 
forms me that he has 15,000 sheep on a ranch of 80,000 acres, 
all of which is enclosed with a wire fence. The rapidity with 



18 

whicli tlie increase takes place seems Inconceivable to those who 
do not know the laws of arithmetical progression. According to 
my Texan informant, who has given me the data in precise detail, 
the increase which may be counted on is eighty per cent. The 
flock-master, commencing with enough range next October, 
with 1,G00 ewes, will have, March, 1880, 4,160 head; in 
March, 1881, 6,400 head; and in March, 1882, —less than 
four years, — 9,280 head from his original flock of 1,600 ewes. 
The flocks in Texas are entirely, and in California mainly, 
founded upon the Mexican or Chourro stock. The improvement 
in the general clip fi'oni these States each year is signally ob- 
servable to the expert purchaser. 

While the new States may boast of their immense flocks, 
the old sheep-growing States are the sources from which these 
flocks are sustained or regenerated. And thus the decline of 
sheep husbandry in some of the States of the North is more 
apparent than real. To appreciate the value of the infusion of 
blood from the merino flocks of the North, we must note in 
more detail the national resources for sheep husbandry which 
we derive from our own improvement of the merino race. 
Our breeders have established a distinctive variety of this race, 
having its characteristics, like the Saxon or French merino, 
and presenting essential differences from its Spanish ances- 
tors, or any other merino family. This race is recognized as 
the American merino. The State of Connecticut can claim the 
honor of taking the first steps in this improvement. One of 
her citizens — Stephen Atwood, of Woodbury — bought a ewe 
from Colonel Humphreys, in 1813, which he bred to rams of 
pure Humphreys' blood until 1830, when he used rams from 
his own flock. This flock was kept pure, and had become so 
much improved as to attract the attention of breeders through- 
out the country; among others, that of Edwin Hammond, of 
Middlebury, Vermont, who, between 1844-46, purchased the 
principal portion of the ewe lambs of Mr. Atwood's flock. With 
this material, he developed, in the short space of about fifteen 
years, the race recognized throughout the world as the typical 
American merino. Mr. Hammond's stock was the foundation 



19 

of the principal breeding flocks in the country ; and his standard 
and methods have at least been the guides for the most success- 
ful breeders. .1 do not propose to follow out in detail Mr. 
Hammond's achievements. I will state only some of the pres- 
ent results accomplished through him and his successors. 

The weight of Spanish merinos at the commencement of this 
century was, for rams, from forty-two to one hundred pounds ; 
for ewes, from thirty to seventy pounds. The average weight of 
the unwashed fleeces of the rams was eight and a half pounds ; of 
the ewes, unwashed, five pounds. At the present time, in a 
characteristic breeding section, — the Valley of the Gennessee, 
New York, — of which I have authoritative information, small 
flocks, containing from fifty to a hundred breeding ewes, will, 
in some instances, average upwards of fifteen pounds of un- 
washed wool each ; while selections of ewes, not in breeding, 
often shear from eighteen to twenty-two pounds unwashed wool, 
which scours from six to seven and a half pounds. The live 
weight of these ewes reaches from ninety to one hundred and 
thirty pounds, the stock rams produce from twenty-six to thirty- 
six pounds unwashed wool, having a weight of from one hundred 
and fifty to one hundred and ninety pounds. 

It is obvious that, with this great increase of size, the flesh- 
producing qualities of the animal have been equally increased 
with its wool-bearing aptitudes. These sheep are not re- 
ferred to as types of flocks most desirable for the farmer or the 
wool-manufacturer. They are deformed by wrinkles, have an 
excess of yolk, and produce not fine, but medium wools, though 
fortunately these medium wools constitute the great bulk of the 
fleeces in demand for our manufactures. These sheep are bred 
specially to produce rams for sale in the States at the South and 
West possessing the native or jNIexican sheep. To improve the 
inferior sheep, it is found that the rams must possess certain 
qualities in an exaggerated degree. 

It is claimed by the breeders that the constitution of these 

* See in Appendix the statement of Mr. W. G. Markliam, President of the 
New York Wool-Growers' and Siieep-Breeders' Association, kindly prepared by 
him at my request. 

3 



20 

animals, evinced by a carcass modelled after the type of a short- 
horned bidl ; great density, rather than length, of fleece ; a com- 
plete covering by the fleece of the body, hind-legs, and belly ; 
a superabundance of yolk, and medium fineness of wool, — are 
the most desirable qualities to be imparted to the light, dry, and 
thin-fleeced native sheep of the South and far West. 

The American merinos, certainly, are highly appreciated abroad. 
Sheep of the Hammond stock, exhibited by Mr. Campbell at 
the International Exhibition at Hamburgh, obtained the highest 
prize in the class of heavy-woolled animals. Mr. Graham, of 
Australia, says, "Of all imported sheep, those of our first cousins, 
the Americans, are the best ; " and, "The best rams imported to 
Melbourne of late years were those sent by Mr. Campbell," an 
American. 

An important fact connected with the improved American 
merino should not be omitted. Our breeders, in aiming to in- 
crease the weight of their fleeces, have developed the length of 
the staple, and have unconsciously created a merino combing- 
wool, — a wool in special demand through modern improvements 
in machinery and changes in the fashion of goods. Mr. Fernau, 
an eminent Belgian wool-manufacturer, who has thoroughly 
studied our wool resources and manufactures, says, that three- 
quarters of the American wool is a combing-ivool, and will ulti- 
mately be employed for this purpose. This point will be 
referred to at more length hereafter. 

An important qualification must be made to these laudations 
of our impi'oved merinos. Very few of the old wool-buyers and 
cloth-manufacturers of the country will admit that there has 
been any improvement in American wools. It is true that the 
light fine fleeces of old times, with the prices then paid for them, 
were more profitable to the manufacturer, as they contained so 
much more scoured or fine wool to the pound of the merchantable 
commodity. But when the greater present demand for medium 
wools, the vastly increased abundance of these wools caused by 
the improvements adverted to, and the conversion of clothing- 
wool to combing-wool, are taken into consideration, it cannot be 
denied that the wool industry of the country, upon the whole, 



21 

has been greatly benefited by the change. The bulk of Am- 
erican merino wools are of strong, sound, and healthy staple ; 
having few weak spots in them from unequal feeding. Those 
from the older States of the West are free from burs. Those 
from California have this defect in a high degree. They are 
admirably fitted for flannels, blankets, and fancy cassimeres, and 
the great bulk of our card-wool manufacturers. They are so 
excellent, as a whole, that Mr. Fernau says they are too valu- 
able to be used for clothing purposes. They supply nine-tenths 
of all the caixl or clothing wool consumed in American mills. 

But the improvements of our breeders have gone far enough 
in the direction lately pursued. It is the opinion of many emi- 
nent growers that a new departure should be taken in our wool- 
growing. Having stated our positive resources in merino-sheep 
husbandry, let me show the negative side, and point out our 
deficiencies. Our merino wools as a class have become coarser 
in staple than they were tiiirty years ago. They are less clean 
than at that j)eriod ; that is, tiiey abound more in yolk. The 
Ohio wools would formerly waste in scouring but forty per cent 
on an average ; now the waste is from forty-five to forty-eight 
per cent. It is l)elieved that average merino flocks need an 
infusion of blood from finer and lighter woolled regenerators. 

Again, we have a great deficiency of superfine merino wools; 
and these, when required, must be obtained mainly abroad. The 
principal objection to the existing protective duties on merino 
wools comes from the fine-cloth makers of the country, who, not 
without some show of reason, complain that high protective duties 
have failed in procuring the domestic supply of superfine wool 
promised by the wool-growers, under sufificient encouragement. 
It is true that the sfrowino; of these wools has declined throu2rh- 
out the world, as fancy cassimeres made of medium wools have 
so largely taken the place of the fine broadcloths formerly ex- 
clusively worn, for business as well as dress suits. The super- 
fine. Saxony, Silesian XXX. (as the grade is called in the 
wool-trade of this country), or electoral wool, the proper 
appellation (from the elector of Saxony, in whose country the 
race producing this wool was first produced), is indispensable for 



22 

making the finest broadcloths or doeskins, the finest flannels, 
fine shawls, French merinos, and Thibets of the finest grades, 
felts for pianos and jewelry work, and many novelties. They 
should be grown by every country having suitable resources, 
which aspires, as we do, to industrial independence. 

My own practical observation has led me to think that the 
electoral sheep cannot be profitably grown in the Northern 
States ; although Mr. William Chamberlain, of Red Hook, New 
York, who had imported five hundred of the Silesian variety of 
this race, and bred them exclusively, declared that they thrived 
as well with him as any breed of sheep with which he was 
acquainted. But I am strongly impressed with the belief that 
a Southern climate, where succulent vegetation can be procured 
in the winter, contrary to general belief, is peculiarly fitted for' 
the growth of very fine wool. This is the opinion of the best 
practical sheep-growers of the South ; such as Colonel Watts, 
Mr. Cockerill, Mr. Howard, and others. In a recent paper on 
sheep husbandry in the South, I very earnestly recommended 
the culture of electoral wools at the South. I have recently re- 
ceived a letter from Dr. Ollendorff, a gentleman before referred 
to, of the largest experience in the culture of fine wools in 
South America and Germany, who says, referring to my 
paper : — 

" It is undoubtedly a mistake to suppose that a warm climate 
injuriously influences the wool fibre in regard to fineness. On the 
contrary, I am of the opinion that the fleece of the pure merino, in a 
warm climate, with green, succulent grass nearly the whole year 
round, has rather a tendency to run finer than the interest of the sheep- 
breeder on u large scale requires." 

After the publication of the paper referred to, I pursued in- 
quiries as to the culture of the electoral sheep in the district of 
the United States most famous for the growth of superfine wool, — 
the Panhandle region in AVestern Virginia, and the contiguous 
country in Ohio ; into which country Spanish merino sheep, 
partially descended from Colonel Humphrey's flock, and, sub- 
sequently, Saxon sheep, had been imported by Messrs. W«lls 
& Dickerson. In answer to my inquiries, I obtained the fol- 



9?. 



lowing facts, in an extended communication from INIr. J. D. 
Witiiam, of West Virginia, a ])ractical wool-grower and wool- 
dealer, from which I give some extracts in detail, as they furnish 
entirely fresh and original information upon a too much neglected 
branch of sheep husbandry. 

" The Messrs. Faris Brotliers, of West Liberty, Ohio County, West 
Virginia, formerly owned flocks which were bred with particular regard 
to fineness ; and Mr. John Faris, who has still a portion of the old 
flock, claims to have bred the finest-wooUed ram that ever was born, — 
his fleece weighing but a pound and three-quarters. All who saw him 
pronounced him the finest they had ever seen. Some of the progeny 
of this ram is still to be found in two or three flocks in Ohio County. 

" It is claimed hy the farmers of this county, that they formerly 
bred from as pure Saxony sheep as could be obtained. Many of them 
were purchased from a Mr. Peabody Atkinson, who came from New 
England, and was an enthusiast in his devotion to fine-woolled sheep. 

" Mr. Ninian Bead, near West Liberty, has a flock of about 500 sheep, 
' not as many as he would like,' he says, ' but enough for a sample.' He 
warrants all to be XXX and pick-lock. The fleeces will average from 
three to three and a half pounds. lie is now breeding from Silesian 
rams. His flock, with two or three others, may be considered the 
cream of the once-famous Saxony flocks of West Virginia. Notwith- 
standing the recent infusion of Silesian blood, they may be regarded 
as having a Saxony foundation ; for the Silesian infusion is of com- 
paratively late introduction. Mr. Beall is now breeding from 
' Beecher,' a ram purchased at the Centennial, from the Silesian flock 
of the late W. H. Chamberlain, of Red Hook. He shears eleven 
pounds of beautiful unwashed wool, very compact, yet short in staple. 
Some persons thirdc the Silesians are lacking in constitution. Mr. 
Beall })ronounces this animal to have as good a constitution as any 
sheep in the country, and to be an excellent breeder. He has not foiuid 
it necessary to nurse one of his hunbs during the two years that he has 
been breeding from him. Mr. Beall prides himself as much upon his 
flue wool as any ' electoral duke ' can. It seems quite appropriate 
that he should grow 'noble' wools. Residing on one of the richest and 
finest farms in any country, he is truly a lord in his own realm; — 
with his help around him, his every motion a command, and the very 
soil on which he treads seeming to know naught but to obey, — as his 
well-filled barns and waving corn will testify. 

" It may be added, that the same manufacturer has purchased his 



24 

wool for the past nine years. Yesterday he sold his wool for 48 cents 
a pound ; last year, for GO cents." 

I recollect distinctly and with great pleasure the exhibit of 
Mr. Beall's wool at the Centennial. As one of the judges of 
wool, 1 exanu'ned it, in company with the eminent Bradford 
manufacturer, jNIr. Mitchell, and wrote his award with Mr. 
Mitchell's hearty concurrence: "An exhibit of Saxony fleeces, 
two bucks and two ewes, of fineness characteristic of the race." 

Mr. WItham adds — 

" There are some three or four other clips which sold for as much, 
or witliin a half-cent as much, as Mr. Beall's. I might mention Mr. 
James Ridgeley, of the same district; Mr. John Baird, of Philadelphia ; 
and Dr. J. C. Campbell, of Richland District. These men claim to 
have never introduced Spanish merino blood into their flocks; and the 
products of their flocks are known as Saxony clips. Indeed, there are 
but few flocks in this country from which the Saxony blood has been 
entirely bred out." 

Harrison County, adjoining flie Panhandle, has been always 
famous for its superfine wool, Mr. Witham writes, — 

" Mr. William Croskey, of Hopedale, has over a thousand fleeces, 
all grading XXX and above. I had supposed tliere was not such a 
clip in the country, and certainly there is not such another. It pre- 
sents a very showy appearance, as it is ' rocked ' up on an elevated 
l)latform in the mi<ldle of his l)arn floor. Snow-white in appearance, a 
manufacturer could but say, ' I came, I saw, I bought.' He has his 
ram fleeces, some fifteen or twenty, piled on the outside of his pile in 
the ' wall ' in one place, and tells you, ' Now, I will give you this pile, 
if you will pick out the bucks' fleeces.' They are washed, and present 
as showy and white an appearance as any of his fleeces. His wool is 
lunger in the staple than I expected to see it. Much of it has delaine 
length, — the very wool for French cashmeres and merinos. 

" Mr. Croskey considers his sheep the hardiest that are bred in the 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia region. The wool pays as 
well as any other raised in that region. His fleeces average three and 
three-quarter pounds. He sold last year for sixty-five cents a pound, 
straight through, without any deductions or dockings. I said to him, 
' What breed of sheep do you have, Mr. Croskey ? Is it Saxony ? ' 

" ' 1 do not know. I have aimed to breed the best and finest sheep 



that I could get. I do not like the Silesian ; bred them one year, but 
sold all the stock when two years old. I do uot think there is a drop 
of Silesian blood in my flock. The Silesians may be very good sheep, 
but not what I am breeding for. I have some of the best of Thomas 
A. Wood's flock, acknowledged by all to have been the fhiest of that 
section, but sold and scattered among other wool men after his death. 
I had one of his rams, which died last year at the age of twenty-two 
years, and which took the premium or medal as the finest sheep at one 
of the world's fairs. I have now twenty better sheep than him, in 
every respect.' 

" "■ Do you uot think your breed of sheep, or the Saxony sheep, 
tender ? ' 

" ' I suppose my sheep are Saxony, if any thing. They are not 
American merino, Spanish, Silesian, or any other breed of which I 
have heard. This ram, dying at the age of twenty-two, would seem to 
indicate hardiness. 1 do not house my she'ep. Some of them have 
free access to sheds; but they are just as apt to select the highest knoll 
of a cold night as any other place. I think there is no hardier sheep, 
no sheep better adat)ted to this climate ; and we have as hard a climate 
as anywhere, the thermometer getting down as low as 25'^ below zero, 
and up to 100° in the shade, nearly every year. I have not as much 
trouble with my lambs in dropping time as some of my neighbors who 
raise Spanish or American merinos.' 

"'Do you think the tendency of your flock is to grow finer and 
lighter, or not? ' 

" ' My flock is finer than when I commenced breeding, forty years 
ago ; and the fleeces will average one pound heavier, — obviously because 
it has become longer, with no more grease. I feed but little grain. I 
can raise two of my Saxon sheep where you can raise one merino. 
Neighbor ^lulhoUand trieil this, and found the Saxon the hardiest, and 
much the easiest kept. With the same care, it will raise nearly as 
much wool ; and probably more, taking the grease into consideration.' " 

I will add, that I also remember the wool of this same Mr. 
Croskey at the Centennial, and that the judges gave him an 
award in these terms: '"An exhibit of twelve samples of Saxony 
wool of the highest excellence." 

Tlie above extracts show that our Southern friends who desire 
to pursue tiie fascinating pursuit of superfine sheep husbandry 
may find in our own country breeding animals to start their 



26 

flocks, thoroughly accHmated, having all the fineness of the origi- 
nal Saxons without their tenderness of constitution, and pro- 
ducing heavier fleeces without loss of fineness of fibre. Thus 
we find what will be to most of us an unexpected addition to 
the American resources for sheep husbandry. 

To aj)preciate this American improvement, we must consider 
the delicacy of the original Saxons. In Germany, they were 
not only housed during winter and at night, but their barns were 
actually warmed in severely cold weather. In yeaning time, as 
Dr. Randall states, they received, and came to require, as much 
care as human patients. I well remember that nearly all the 
lambs from my father's flock of imported Saxons required to be 
suckled by hand. 

Immediately connected with this branch of my subject, the 
merino sheep, is the question of our territorial resources for the 
further extension of the pastoral-sheep husbandry as a principal 
or exclusive pui'suit ; for which, as has been before said, the 
merino races are especially adapted. The fact must be ad- 
mitted, that sheep-growing for wool alone is not likely to be 
ever again profitable in the Northern and Eastern States ; for the 
obvious reason, that wool can be raised more cheaply on the 
cheap lands of the West and South, where shelter and winter- 
feeding are required only occasionally and for brief periods, and 
where the vegetation is spontaneous. The pastoral-sheep hus- 
bandry in prosperous countries has a character of evanescence 
which is really one of the best proofs of its beneficent results. 
It first occupies the waste pastures, and then converts them 
from the domain of the crook to that of the plough. California, 
with its 6,500,000 sheep, producing 50,000,000 pounds of 
wool, it is said, has occupied all her available pasture-lands. 
To supply the deficiency, her wool-growers have resorted to the 
culture of the alfalfa, — that wonderful fodder plant which yields 
from six even to eight tons of hay, and which is preferred by 
cattle and sheep to any hay whatever. " The Pacific Rural 
Press" of March last, describing a ranch having 7,000 sheep, 
says that 1,300 acres sown to alfalfa were cut last year five 
times, yielding a ton and a half of hay to each acre. In 1876 



27 

some 40,500 acres were planted with this clover in California. 
Under this system, sheep are fed on the ranch instead of the dis- 
tant hillsides, and four or five times as many can be kept on the 
same territory. This is the first step to an improved husbandry, 
— to mixed crops, to mutton sheep, and finally the retirement of 
the nomadic shepherd to new lands, to be in their turn converted 
to permanent settlement. 

California is but the margin of the Western lands which may 
be occupied for sheep husbandry. To quote Dr. Latham, 
" there is an area of country between the Missouri River and the 
Pacific coast containing 1,650,000 square miles, or more than a 
billion of acres, which is one immense pasture ground, — bound- 
less, endless, gateless, — and all of it furnishing winter grazing." 
This winter grazing, it hardly needs to be said, is the character- 
istic feature of our continental pastures ; the peculiar climatic 
conditions of the high interior country permitting the rich and 
abundant grasses, like the "bunch " and "gramma," to be cured 
while standing. The vast number of wild graminivorous animals 
which have wintered on these plains for ages shows that nature 
itself has pointed out this country as the grazing ground of the 
continent. One ilkistration will suffice to show the infinite re- 
sources of that region for sheep husbandry. The valley of the 
Kepublican is 250 miles long and 100 miles wide, containing 
16,000,000 acres. There is not a rod of these 16,000,000 
acres, says Dr. Latham, which is not the finest of grazing land, 
and is not covered with a luxui'iant growth of blue buffalo and 
gramma grasses. All the sheep of California coukl be pastured 
in this single valley. A large portion of this region is made 
available by the Union Pacific liailroad and its branches. Even 
more valuable grazing lands, I am informed, will be made 
available by tlie completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, 
— a great national work whose accomplishment would be made 
certain simply by the extension of the original grant asked for 
from Congress. With this line completed, sheep and cattle 
raised on the bunch and gramma pastures could be water borne 
from the head of Lake Superior to Buffalo, on their way to the 

4 



markets of Europe, which it is America's destiny to supply with 
beef and mutton. 

Omitting, as I am compelled to do, any notice of the re- 
sources of the intervening settled States of the West, — of which 
Minnesota, producing this year 40,000,000 bushels of wheat on 
lands where twenty years ago the buffaloes roamed, and enter- 
ing with great vigor and success into sheep husbandry, is a 
splendid example, — I will glance at the resources of the South, 
a region preferable to many on account of its greater accessi- 
bility. 

In the ten States of the cotton belt, excluding Texas, there 
are 2,600,000 sheep, on an area of 267,000,000 acres, or one 
sheep to a hundred acres. Considering the small number of 
animals and their inferior character, sheep husbandry, in the 
proper acceptation of the term, does not exist at the South. 
And yet the wisest agriculturists of the South admit that 
merino-sheep husbandry would be a most advantageous adjunct 
to the cotton culture. Winter-feeding is required but from two 
to three months ; while the flocks must be fed from five to six 
months at the North. Succulent food can be obtained through- 
out the year. With nutritious alfalfa and the Bermuda grass, 
more nutritious even than blue grass ; peas, which take the 
place of clover ; rye and oats, which may be pastured in winter, 
without injury to the crop of grain ; turnips, which may be fed 
from in the field, as in England; and, above all, cotton seed, at 
fifteen cents a bushel, — sheep may be fed at a much lower cost 
in the South than at the North. 

But the resources for a sheep husbandry on a large scale is 
the immediate question in hand. The pine-lands of the Caro- 
linas, and especially of Georgia, ft is believed, are favorably 
adapted for sheep husbandry on a large scale. Millions of acres 
of pine-lands upon which the wire grass grows spontaneously, 
furnishing an excellent pasturage for a large part of the year, 
can be obtained at from fifty cents to one dollar an acre. The 
few weeks' feed in winter may be furnished by winter oats or tur- 
nips, for which the land can be prepared simply by harrowing. 
General Gordon, of the United States Senate, has recently em- 



29 

barked in sheep husbandry on a Large scale upon these Lands ; 
and practical gentlemen from the North who have visited this 
country this summer inform me that they shall follow his ex- 
ample. 

AV^e must go to the extreme South for the country which 
offers, in my judgment, the most hopeful field to the enterprising 
shepherd who does not fear INlexican depredations or Indian 
raids. In Texas we find a climate so mild that the sheep thrive 
absolutely without shelter. Pasturage is afforded throughout 
the whole year by the indigenous, perennial mesquite gi'asses, 
and so abundantly that the store sheep are kept fat throughout 
the year without any other forage. Pastoral-sheep husbandry 
is here reduced to a perfect system ; and there are absolutely no 
obstacles to its pursuit as advantageously as in any other country 
in the world, except the unsettled state of the country, which 
railroads will soon cure. Emigration and sheep are pouring 
in from the North and California, and skilled shepherds from 
Europe and even Australia. Even with its nearly 4,000,000 
head, only two counties (Nueces and Starr) are occupied. Texas 
has an area which exceeds that of the German Empire by 60,000 
square miles, and there are 80,000,000 acres of land still unlo- 
cated. If two acres are required for one sheep (the usual esti- 
mate), and only half the land is fitted for sheep culture, there are 
still enough unoccupied lands to support 20,000,000. ]Mr. 
Emerson says tliat the wealth of modern times is due to a very 
few great staples. Let the South, as she can, place Queen 
Wool by the side of King Cotton in her territory, and she may 
indeed assert her sovereignty in material resources. 

MUTTON SHEEP. 

In discussing the merinos, I have dwelt upon only one of the 
aptitudes of the ovine animals, — that for wool production. The 
aptitudes of sheep for producing mutton and manure, which are 
no less important, demand a brief consideration. Under this 
head, I shall speak less of wliat we have done than what we 
ought to do. I need not say that the fiesh-producing aptitude 
is found in the highest degree in the long-woolled sheep of the 



30 

English races. Before this audience, I need not dwell upon the 
special characteristics of the principal English races. You all 
know that English sheep-husbandry, such as it now exists, for 
mutton as its principal object, commenced with the introduc- 
tion of the turnip culture, by William of Orange, at the end of 
the seventeenth century, as by this culture the same land could 
support three times as many sheep as before ; and that the Eng- 
lish sheep-husbandry received, soon after, its second great im- 
pulse, through Bakewell's creation of the New Leicester breed ; 
by the use of which race it became possible to fatten an animal 
in one year, and give it full maturity in two years, whereas 
formerly it required four. You are aware, too, that the New 
Leicester race, with its extraordinary power of imparting its 
qualities to other races, has modified all the other English 
breeds. Long wool and fat mutton became the chief charac- 
teristics of English sheep-husbandry ; as did the worsted in- 
dustry, employing the long wools, become the predominant 
branch of the English wool-manufacture. This change had an 
astonishing influence upon the value of lands in England and 
Scotland. Sir Walter Scott, whose practical eye served him 
as much as his imagination, well illustrates this in the intro- 
ductory chapter of the "Black Dwarf." He represents a South 
Highland sheep-farmer and his old shepherd discoursing at a 
wayside inn upon the changes from the times of the short- 
woolled blackfaces, since the long-woolled sheep had come in : 

" ' 111 would your father hae liked ' [says the old shepherd to the 
farmer] ' to hae seen that braw sunny knowe a' riven out wi' the pleugh 
in the fashion it is at this day. It was a bonny kuowe, and an unco 
braw shelter for the lambs in a severe morning like this.' 

" ' Ay,' said his patron ; ' but ye ken we maun hae turnips for the 
lang sheep, billie, and muckle hard work to get them, baith wi' the 
pleugh and the howe.' . . . 

" ' Aweel, aweel, maister,' said the attendant, ' short sheep had short 
rents, I'm thinking.' 

" Here my worthy and learned patron [Mr. Jedediah Cleishbotham] 
interposed, and observed, ' that he could never perceive auy material 
difference, in point of longitude, between one sheep and anotlier.' 

" This occasioned a loud horse laugh on the part of the farmer, and 



oi 

an astonished stare on the part of the shepherd. ' It's the woo' man, 
— it's the woo', and no the beasts thenisells, that makes them be ca'd 
lang or short. I believe if ye were to measure their hacks, the sliort 
sheep wad be rather the hiiiger-bodied o' the twa ; but it's the woo' 
that pays the rent in thae days, and it had muckle need.' 

" Odd, Bauhhe says very true, — sliort sheep did make short rents, — 
my father paid for our steading just threescore punds, and it stands 
me in three hundred, plack and bawbee. " 

This long extract would be inexcusable did it not illustrate 
the point which I wish to enforce; viz., that high-priced lands 
and long or mutton sheep go together. The Eastern States 
must x-evive their declining sheep-husbandry, not by restoring 
the old merinos, but by adopting the English system. The great 
Thiers said, "The agriculture of France cannot dispense with 
sheep ; " neither can the agriculture of New England and New 
York, The land must be kept up. There can be no reliance 
upon commercial fertilizers until there is more honesty in com- 
merce. It is beyond dispute that grain crops cannot for long 
periods be profitably grown, except by combining them with 
some sort of stock growing. Cattle raising for beef is out of 
the question at the East since the opening of the winter-grazing 
lands of the far West. The most experienced stock-raisers 
of the country inform me that even Kentucky must abandon 
cattle raising for beef. Great Britain has 34,532,000 siieep, 
on 77,284,184 acres, which realize an annual product of the 
value of $150,000,000. Here is a demonstration that, on 
the highest-priced agricultural lands in the world, sheep hus- 
bandry is not only profitable but indispensable. You are all 
aware that, by the combination of sheep husbandry with wheat 
culture, lands in England which in the time of Elizabeth pro- 
duced on an average six and a half bushels of wheat to the acre, 
produce now over thirty bushels, and that the fertilizing influ- 
ence of the sheep on the wheat lands is regarded by the most 
recent agricultural writers of England as the main object of her 
sheep husbandry. I will not repeat what I have elsewhere given, 
— the conclusive testimony of Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Geddes, 
Mr. Stilson, and others on this point, — because the individual 
experience of most of you will supply sufficient examples. 



32 

Permit me to give one or two fresh illustrfitlons upon this 
point in hand, furnished me by practical farmers. The farmers 
of Connecticut in former times, it would appear, had a full 
appreciation of the fertilizing" influences of the sheep. In the 
town of Goshen, in Connecticut, according to my informant, 
the public roads were anciently laid out eight rods wide ; 
and in these roads it was the custom to pasture in common 
the sheep belonging to the individual proprietors of the town, 
which were taken care of by a man and a boy, at the expense of 
the town authorities. The yarding of the sheep for each night, 
in order that the benefits of the manure might not be lost, was 
let out at the town meeting. On the evening of the 27th of 
INfay, just preceding the famous cold sunuuer of 1816, it 
came the turn of a certain farmer to yard the sheep for the 
night. He had no field fenced which would hold the sheep, 
— some eight hundred in number, — except a field planted with 
corn, which had already come up. Preferring to sacrifice the 
corn to losing the manure, he turned the flock into this very 
field. On that night the frost cut off all the corn in the town, 
and the sheep had cut off our farmer's, who congratulated him- 
self, in the morning, that he was no worse oflf than his neigh- 
bors. He soon found that he was better oflT. The sheep by 
cutting off the top shoots had saved the plants from being killed 
by the frost, and the droppings from the sheep in one night had 
so enriched the field that it produced the largest crop of corn 
that had been grown in the town for years. 

The valley of the Connecticut furnishes a more instructive 
illustration of the beneficial influences of sheep husbandry upon 
crops. I refer to the system of sheep-feeding for mutton and 
manure, in connection with the tobacco culture, &c., profitably 
pursued in that valley. For the purpose of obtaining definite 
information, I addressed inquiries to several px-actical farmers 
engaged in this pursuit in that region. Among others, to Mr. 
J. F. C. All is, of East Whately, Mass., whose statement is so 
instructive that I give it at length, in his own words : — 

" We feed from two hundred to six hundred sheep ; buying in the 
fall, and selHng in the spring. We have bought, directly after shear- 



33 

ing, of Michigan farmers, and liad the sheep pastured till November. 
By early selecting and buying, we are more sure of getting the best 
sheep, and more easily obtain all wethers, and usually at minimum cost. 
Merinos crossed with long-wool sheep weighing from 90 to 110 pounds, 
from three to live years of age, are the kind we select, as they take on 
fat easily, and their mutton is preferred in New York and Brighton 
markets. Long-wool sheep, as we think, are not good feeders : tliey 
do not take on fat so easily ; and, although they cost more, will not sell 
higher when we are ready to mai'ket them. 

" We keep our sheep under cover, and commence to feed lightly 
about December 1st, yarding them close, from forty to fifty in a pen ; 
always keeping them well bedded with wheat and rye straw, or coarse 
ha}'. We commence to feed the sheep light with grain, gradually in- 
creasing till they eat one quart each, daily: we seldom give more; the 
object being to give them all tliey will eat, without cloying. 

" In 1871, we fed two hundred sheep from December 1st, and eighty- 
five more from Decemlier 'lith, and sent them to Brighton market, April 
10, 1872. AVe fed 725 bushels of corn, with 15 tons of hay. From 
1865 to 187o, Massachusetts-Connecticut River Valley farmers fed 
from eight to ten thousand yearly, mostly coming from Michigan, some 
from Ohio ; but Michigan merinos crossed with long-wooUed sheep are 
considered the best feeders. 

" During those years, sheep for feeders found a ready sale; and agents 
from tobacco-growers would take from one to two months in marketing 
fiocks, and would car them here one thousand to two thousand at a 
time. 

'• Since 1873, owing to financial causes and their effect, and almost 
always lower markets for the same class of mutton in the spring than 
in the fall, the number fed has gradually decreased, till last year only 
about two thousand were fatted. Farmers were satisfied to feed when 
they would receive pay for grain, considering the manure would pay 
for hay and care of sheep. During the best year of feeding, sheep would 
sell in the spring for double the price paid in fall ; the avei'age price 
one-third more. Since 1873, more caution has been taken, the pressure 
of time being too hard for profitable sheep-feeding. 

"The cause for feeding so many sheep for their mutton in this valley 
is the high value of sheep manure for tobacco-growers, it having the 
effect on our light soil to produce dark-colored silky leaf, of good burn- 
ing quality, suitable for wrapping fine cigai's ; the tobacco buiuis wliite, 
and has a good sweet flavor, jjerhaps owing to the potash it derives 
from the manure. So valuable do we consider this sheep manure tliat 



84 

we have shipped, since 1870, from West Albany, from fifty to one hun- 
dred and fifty cords ; costing from eight to ten dolhirs a cord, every 
spring. On our Hght soils, called pine-lands, after raising crops of 
tobacco, 2,000 pounds to the acre, we have sown wheat ; yielding 30 
bushels, plump berry, and heavy weight of straw, on land which with- 
out this dressing of manure is fit only for white beans. We of late 
years feed with our sweetest and finest hay, and mix with our corn one- 
third cotton-seed meal ; by so feeding, our slieep fatten more easily, 
bein"- more hardy and better conditioned, besides increasing the value 
of the manure and rendering it more full of plant food. 

'' Farmers in hill-towns, and some in tiie valley, are keeping ewes 
for raising lamb for early spring market ; and those farmers who have 
good pasturage for fall market realize for lambs, of from 40 to 70 
pounds, from 18 to $10 each. 

" This branch of sheep luisbandry will undoubtedly increase among 
farmers, who will keep from fifteen to thirty head, notwithstanding the 
difiiculty of good pasturage and the worry and destruction caused by 
dogs. 

" Sheep, invariably, are the best that are penned in Novetuber and 
December coming direct from pastures. Having only had light feeding 
of grain, they car better and are more hearty feeders. The Connecticut- 
River-fed sheep have a ready sale, at full market rates, in early and late 
spring, botli in Brighton and New York markets. 

" Fattening wethers for market would rapidly increase, if the spring 
market could be more relied upon. Perhaps this reliance will come 
from the increasing foreign demand for good mutton." 

The reference in the <above statement to the nuisance of dogs 
leads me to say, that no more important subject can come before 
this Agricultural Congress than the recommendation of legisla- 
tive measures to remove this almost fatal obstacle to sheep 
luisl)andry in thickly-settled districts. 

We see in the Connecticut Valley the introduction of the 
systein so largely pursued in Scotland and Ireland, of raising- 
sheep in one district to be fiittened in anotiier. Sixty thousand 
sheej) are often sold in a day at a single fair in Ireland, for this 
kind of exchange. Facilities are being opened to our Northern 
farmers for obtaining sheep for fattening, or stocking their farms, 
at greatly reduced rates. Mr. Farniiam, an enterprising native 
of Vermont, informs me that he has succeeded in establishing an 



35 

express line, for live stock, from Little Rock, Arkansas, to New 
York. He proposes to bring by this line fifty thousand sheep 
from Texas, this fall, to the Connecticut Eiver, to be fed in 
winter ; and believes that from that source the farms of New 
Hampshire and Vermont will, at no distant time, be sufficiently 
stocked with sheep, the impediment of late years being the diffi- 
culty of purchasing animals at reasonable prices. 

I do not recommend for New England any enterprise in 
sheep husbandry on a large scale. My intelligent correspond- 
ent above quoted indicates the modest scale upon which only 
tliis industry can be advantageously conducted. It has been 
wisely said, " Farmers, as a rule, should not go into sheep hus- 
bandry to the neglect of other things. Let sheep be one of the 
products of the farm, not the only product : a few sheep well 
cared for will prove profitable to every farmer ; while a large 
flock would become, in nine cases out of ten, a source of annoy- 
ance and expense." For this modest addition to the resources 
of ordinary farming, where city markets are accessible, I think 
there is no question tliat the long-woolled mutton races are best 
adapted. They best give the three dividends, — wool, mutton, 
and lambs. They thrive best in small flocks. The enormous 
clip of Canada wool is produced from small flocks, rarely exceed- 
ing fifty head. The wool, from six to about seven pounds to 
the animal, for a series of years, will bring good prices ; as, 
unlike merino wools, it does not encounter competition with 
the product of the cheap pastoral lands in the Southern Hemi- 
sphere. Averaging at least 150 pounds in gx'oss live-weight, 
the animals will sell for six cents a pound, when ordinary New 
England sheep sell for four or four and a half. The lambs 
have brought this year in the Brighton market from $10 to 
$12. The town of Hingham near Boston, under my observa- 
tion, has conspicuously verified the profitableness of the Cots- 
wolds, — the race at present most in vogue. One farmer realized 
$1,000 from the produce of one hundred ewes, and many smaller 
flocks produced in the same proportion. The green and clean 
pastures now seen in this old town are in striking contrast with 

5 



36 

their waste and ras^fjed look before the Cotswolds were intro- 
duced. 

The mention of this breed leads me to question the wis- 
dom of the preference which is generally given in our East- 
ern States to this race over the Leicesters. The farmers in 
Maine, whom I met at the session of their State board of 
agriculture, regarded the Leicester as less hardy in their climate 
than the Cotswolds. On the other hand, Mr. Motley, the 
well-informed lecturer on sheep-husbandry at the Bussey Farm 
connected with Harvard University, who has grown the Lei- 
cesters very extensively, regards them as perfectly hardy in 
the climate of Eastern Massachusetts. The mutton of the 
Cotswold is coarse, and considered in England better adapted 
for the working man's than the gentleman's table. The mutton 
of the Leicester is deemed by its English breeders to be fully 
equal to that of the South Downs. Our famous Kentucky 
mutton comes from sheep in which the Cotswold has been quali- 
fied by the Down and merino blood. But it is rather in the 
interest of the worsted manufacturers, with whose wants I am 
familiar, that I desire that the Leicesters should be more gen- 
erally cultivated. Their wool is finer and more lustrous than 
that of the Cotswold, and it is fitted for a greater variety of 
worsted fabrics. The Cotswold wool brought high prices during 
the war, when strong rather than fine-combing wools were in 
demand : it is serviceable for buntinus, saddle orirths, worsted 
epaulets, and trimmings, and for the whites in Brussels carpets ; 
while the Leicester, with its fineness and lustre, is better fitted 
for alpacas and figured dress fabrics, a larger use. The Canada 
wools formerly consisted principally of Leicester fibre. They 
have matei-ially declined in value, through the recent intro- 
duction of Cotswolds. The Bradford Chamber of Commerce 
recommends the Leicester as the best sheep for worsted combing- 
wools ; and Mr. Walworth, the most experienced and skilful 
expert in combing wools in this country, indorses this opinion. 
To this it may be added, that the experiments at the famous 
scientific Rothamsted farm of England have established the fact, 
that the Leicesters rank first in the production of the highest 



37 

amount of wool to the hundred pounds live-weight, of any vari- 
ety of English sheep. These observations should be qualified 
by the remark, that in many of the so-called Cotswolds of the 
present there is a large infusion of Leicester blood. 

Let me not be understood to discountenance the growing of 
crosses of the Cots wold or Leicesters with the American merino. 
This so-called half-bred wool is in great demand at the pres- 
ent day for worsted coatings and certain classes of dress-goods, 
this wool being worth to-day, owing to this demand, 45 cents ; 
while Leicester or Canada fleece sells for 40 cents only. This 
may be temporary. The mutton of these half-breeds, accord- 
ing to Mr. AH is before quoted, is in high request. The half- 
bred flocks are preferred, as I am informed, by the highly 
intelligent and experienced growers of the important sheep 
district of New York, — the Gennessee Valley, — possibly owing 
to the present high prices of their wool. 

Long-combing wools and mutton sheep may be grown any- 
where in New England or New York, if the deficiency of natural 
pasturage is supplied ; that is, there is no necessary obstacle 
in the soil, as there is said to be on the prairies and alkali lands 
of the Plains and California. Tiie disadvantage of natural in- 
fertility in the soil of New England may be counterbalanced by 
nearness to city markets. But certain districts are pre-eminently 
fitted by nature for these sheep. The limestone soils are pecul- 
iarly congenial to them. There can be no more favorable dis- 
tricts than such as are found in Kentucky and Middle Tennessee, 
where the nourishing blue-grass on limestone soils affords per- 
manent pastures, and the sheep require no feeding except when 
there is a fall of snow. Upon these pastures, where one acre 
will feed three sheep, the Leicesters thrive even better than their 
ancestors did on the rich clay -lands of Kent. 

The districts in this country most noted at present for this 
branch of sheep husbandry are Trumbull and Warren Counties 
in the Western Reserve, Ohio, with the adjoining counties in 
Pennsylvania, ranking first ; next in the order of prominence, 
the part of Ohio south of Lake Erie, the blue-grass counties 
in Kentucky, a district in Middle Tennessee, a district in North- 



38 

ern New York bordering on Canada, and the portion of Michi- 
gan on the Lake Shore. Vermont ought to go more extensively 
into this industry (which she has commenced) ; as she has a fertile 
limestone soil, and easy access to market for mutton and lambs. 
Delaware and Western Virginia are entering quite successfully 
into this industry. Southern sheep experts consider the range of 
the " ftiir Blue Ridge of the South as one of the most favored 
spots in America " for the class of wools in question. In still 
lower latitudes, on the rich bottom-lands of the southern coast, 
we find a new, or rather very ancient, variety, — the broad-tailed 
sheep of Syria and of the Bible, — producing a long wool and 
excellent and early-matui-ing mutton. The South possesses, be- 
sides, an invaluable lanigerous animal, with a combing fibre, — 
the Angora goat, which is found in absolutely pure flocks, per- 
fectly acclimated, in Virginia ; while the mountains of the Appa- 
lachian chain furnish a climate and sustenance corresponding to 
those existing in its native habitat. 

The question arises as to the domestic demand for the pro- 
ducts of the mutton and long-woolled sheep. Of English comb- 
ing wools, our consumption is not far from eight million pounds. 
The United States produces from three to four million pounds, 
so that about one half of our supply must still be obtained from 
Canada and England. We ought not go abroad for a pound of 
these wools. The demand for mutton is illustrated by the con- 
sumption in a single locality. In the year ending last May, 
272,000 sheep and lambs were slaughtered at the Brighton 
abattoir. Twenty thousand sheep and lambs were brought to 
that market from Kentucky. When our people are educated to 
eat mutton, as they will be through a sup})ly of a better article, 
ten times as much will be consumed as now. The danger is 
that we shall have a scarcity, and not a surfeit, of mutton. Eu- 
rope threatens to drain us of what little we have. Steamers 
from Boston have carried to Europe 4,174 sheep since January 
1: 185, in the first three months; in April, 788; May, 680; 
June, 588 ; and July, 1,933. So rapidly is this traffic increas- 
ino^ that the Cunard line is removino^ their state-rooms to ac- 
commodate their ovine passengers. 



39 

It is evident, from this brief review of our national resources 
in sheep luisbanchy, that what Milton calls " the fleecy wealth " 
of this country has hardly coininenced its development. The 
encouraging signs for the future are the attention which sheep 
culture has received of late from many of the State boards 
of agriculture ; the appeals of the great statesmen of the South 
in behalf of this industry ; and, above all, the recent invaluable 
reports upon this special subject from the eminent official agri- 
culturists, Mr. Dodge, of the Department of Agriculture, 
Mr. Janes of Georgia,* and j\Ir. Killebrew of Tennessee, whose 
lessons I have not aspired to supplement, but only to confirm. 

It was my intention to discuss in detail the resources of the 
United States for tlie wool manufacture. The time I have 
already occupied will limit me to a very brief summary, and to 
an illustration, by sam[)les of fabrics, of the skill we have at- 
tained in the manufacture. The most important of our resources 
for the wool manufacture, raw material, I have already de- 
scribed. We export no wool ; and the whole of the 28,000,000 
pounds at present produced is consumed at home. The com- 
mand of domestic wool is as necessary for the home manufac- 
ture as water is for a mill. We should cease manufacturing if 
we were compelled to import all our wools. Tiiese wools sup- 
ply nine-tenths of the raw material consumed by the nine thou- 
sand sets making card-wool fabrics. And the wool for its 
purpose is certainly unsurpassed, and I believe unequalled, by 
any in the world. Our deficiencies are superfine wools, of 
which but little is required, and carpet wools, which are grown 
only in barbarous countries, and a partial deficiency of combing 
wools. Of woollen machinery we had in 1870 10,073 sets, 
including those for carpets and worsteds (the number having 
remained nearly stationary since), which produced in that year 
fabrics of the value of $217,578,824, As to the character of this 
machinery, we have all the best machines in use abroad ; and, 

* To Mr. Janes, Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of Georgia, and 
President of tlie Agricultural Congress at its late session, must be awarded the 
honor of initiating, by his excellent report, the present movement in sheep 
husbandry at the South. 



40 

in the exact language of one of the most eminent experts in 
Europe, in a letter addressed to myself: " The greatest part 
of your own invented machinery is superior to the English, 
German, or French machinery." In adaptation to its purpose, 
in strength with lightness, and in perfection of workmanship, I 
believe no textile machinery in the world will compare with 
ours. Not the least of our advantages are the intelligence and 
taste of our people, which compel us to excellence in our 
fabrication. An intelligent Belgian says: "It is a grave 
error to suppose that any thing is good enough for America. 
The American is intelligent and of good taste : no other than 
good merchandise, of honest and elegant fabrication, is used or 
in request by him." The testimony of the same foreigner, the 
official reporter on woollens at the Centennial to the Belgian 
government, will be received as an impartial statement as to 
the general character of our woollen fabrics. He says : — 

" I ought to avow that I was astonished to see the rich, the inter- 
esting collection of cloths and stuffs of the American manufacturers. In 
carefully examining these superb displays of the ' Pacific,' the ' Wash- 
ington,' the ' Missions,' the Pontoosuc Woollen Mills, and of many 
other important manufacturers, no impartial person could fail to recog- 
nize ami frankly avow that the United States maybe placed in the rank 
of the first manufacturers of the world." 

To prove these assertions, but more to make known to you 
the uses to which our various domestic wools are applied, I 
place before you a few samples of American wool manufactures. 

[A series of excellent samples of American wool fabrics were here 
exhibited, and their characteristics explained.] 

In conclusion, the speaker, pointing out the American bunt- 
ing, with which he closed the illustration of domestic fabrics, 
observed : Tlie flag in general symbolizes our political indepen- 
dence ; the one before you specially illustrates our Industrial 
independence. Before the war, — to our shame be it spoken — 
there was not a strip of bunting floating over a national siiip or 
fort which had not been made in Enghmd. The war taugiit 
self-reliance to the South as well as the North. We resolved 
to make our own flag. And we improved upon the making : for 



41 

the stars were formerly made separately, and sewed on ; but 
now each star symbolizing a State, — each, thank God ! shining 
with equal splendor in our political firmament, — all the symbolic 
stars are Avoven imperishably into the web of the "union." The 
emblem of the nation represents not only its independence, po- 
litical and industrial, but the inter-dej)endence of its parts. 
How distinct and contrasting are the hues of the red, white, and 
blue ! Not less distinct are the three great productive agencies 
of the country, — its agriculture, manufactui'es, and domestic com- 
merce ; not less distinct are our great geographical sections, — the 
North, the South, and the West. Each color in the stars, bars, 
and field, enhancing even by their very contrast the vividness of 
the separate hues, is needed to fill the eye with harmony as 
well as splendor. So do agriculture, manufactures, and com- 
merce ; so do the North, the South, and the West, even while 
working strictly in their separate spheres, — react one upon the 
other ; enhancing each other's power, reflecting each other's 
splendor, and making that perfect and harmonious whole, — the 
national prosperity. 



42 



APPENDIX. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IMPROVED AMERICAN MERINO. 

BY WILLIAM G. MARKHAM, PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK SHEEP- 
BREEDERS' AND WOOL-GROAVERS' ASSOCIATION. 

Our merinos, as originally imported from Spain, were bred for wool, 
and very little attention was given to their meat-producing qualities. 
In improving them, wool has been kept the main ol)ject in view, and 
muttou has been made an important consideration in their value. It 
has been the aim of breeders to produce sheep yielding the greatest 
percentage of profit in dollars and cents, rather than to produce any 
specific quality of wool or mutton. 

Seventy years of well-directed efforts, by highly intelligent breeders, 
has brought out a type of merinos which may well be regarded the 
acme of their kind. These sheep are large, symmetrical in form, 
having robust constitutions, and thoroughly covered with a dense 
fleece. 

The essential qualifications which indicate constitution are, — a com- 
pact round body ; ribs well arched ; roomy waist ; back of medium 
length, and straight from shoulder to hips, sloping slightly to the tail, 
which is cut about an inch from carcass ; broad across the loins ; hips 
broad and long, thick through the thighs, and standing straight up and 
down behind ; the shoulder deep, rising slightly from the back ; bosom 
full, and projecting well forward ; legs large, strong boned, straight, of 
medium length, and standing wide apart; head of medium size, broad, 
and rather short ; a short, broad, wrinkly nose, thickly covered with 
short, silky, white hairs. The ram should have large, broad, and well- 
curved horns ; the ewe, never. Neck of ewe, medium length, under 
which is a wide dewlap. The ram has a short neck, and well plated 
with heavy folds under side and across the breast, extending in slight 
corrugations over the neck. Fashion gives him well-defined wrinkles 
back of fore legs, running well up the side toward the back ; folds at 
the buttock uniting with the edges of the tail, giving it broad appear- 
ance ; wrinkles on the breech, extending across the thigh and flank, 
giving him a deep flank ; the skin deep purple, soft, flexible, and loose 



43 

over the entire carcass, giving the sheep when first shorn a crinkly 
appearance, but not observable when in full fleece. The ram in full 
fleece weighs about 100 lbs., and the ewe about 115. 

The fleece, particularly that of the ewe, should be uniform over the 
entire sheep, as to length, quality, and density. The wool, standing at 
right angles to the outer surfece, and so firmly set as to present an 
even, compact surface, should be so filled with free white or light buff 
yolk as to make up 50 to 65 per cent of the entire weight of the 
fleece. 

When the sheep are kept from storms during the fall and winter, 
the yolk should form a dark coating on the surface of fleece, so firm as 
to keep out dirt, hay -seed, &c. 

The fleece should open freely to the skin, in layers or blocks, pre- 
senting a lustrous fibre, about 2\ inches long, having a distinct crimp, 
uniform throughout its entire length, and sufficiently fine to enter into 
the manufocture of cassimeres, and such choice woollen fabrics as are 
made in our country, though usually not so fine as is required for the 
finest broadcloths. 

The ram's fleece is about a quarter of an inch shorter than that of 
the ewe ; staple not as fine, particularly on the wrinkles, often showing 
coarse hairs on the top of the neck wrinkles. By many breeders these 
are considered objectionable ; by others, an indication of stamina or 
masculinity, as the heavy beard of a man would indicate more vitality 
than light, fine whiskers. Very few of our most celebrated stock-rams 
of the past or present have been entirely free from coarse hairs on the 
neck. The ram's fleece should weigh 28 to 30 lbs; the ewe's, 16 to 
18 lbs. Many flocks of ewes, and even rams, are bred more wrinkly 
than I have described ; and are regarded as jjossessiug the desirable 
points in an exaggerated form, with a view of raising the low standard 
more rapidly. 



Cambridge : Press of John Wilson & Son. 






iXih. 




m 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002846 559 



Mm 






Ljgmg^iKij 



mMmi 







